Saturday, October 03, 2009

Whip It On

For nine years I've wanted to know, once again, what love is. I wanted Drew Barrymore to show me. She did: this is as delicious as this. The Hurl Scouts even share a color scheme with the Compton Clovers. "Babe Ruthless" she is, but she's also Bliss.

@AEE: Marcia Gay does great stuff with the role she's got. Admirable peekaboo with the cliché aspects of the role. (As for the ending of Bring It On: what kind of cop-out? You think the championship should have gone the other way? Or you think the eventual entente between the teams never would/should have happened?)

Yay. i'm so glad you loved it. I have to say while i was thinking about it afterwards I knew you would respond to one thing in particular: this film has no easy judgments on its characters. It's totally filled with humanity, Drew doesn't really think of anyone as a caricature even though they're definitely Characters if you know what i mean...

@Nathaniel: And when I was thinking about your reaction, I was imagining that you probably loved how hilariously Drew keeps obscuring or downplaying her own appearances, way above and beyond her generosity to showcase the other actors so well. That first line of dialogue she has, when Kristen Wiig is telling Ellen Page that the next tryout is on Tuesday, or whatever, and Drew is hazily mumbling, "It is?" at the edge of the frame, was hilarious... as it was when she rolls in late to the big group huddle, as the camera pans around to the rest of the Hurl Scouts. Hysterically self-effacing, sort of: she certainly gets plenty of slapstick laughs out of seeming to be a backgrounded character.

A little bit of both. How satirically awesome would it be if they both lost? Change of perspective it would have. And I always figured it would seem too 'racist' to have the white Toros win. But I'm nitpicking. It's a fun wild romp. Hope Whip It is as good. But MGH. I'm already sold.

I enjoyed Whip It!, but I think comparing it to Bring It On, the greatest sports movie ever, is a bit much. The cast was great and Drew Barrymore is most likely going to be a director to watch in the future, but the script was a complete letdown. The subplot with the (ugly) boyfriend added nothing to the film and the dramatic portion where Ellen Page has to apologize to everyone she's ever made contact with simply went on too long. I would have loved for more interaction between the girls, more time for Ari Graynor (seriously, why bother casting someone that hilarious and not even give her a funny line?) and more Kristen Wiig jokes as deliriously silly as the "crabs" one.

Reading the Bromance: Homosocial Relationships in Film and Television ($32/pbk). Ed. Michael DeAngelis. Wayne State University Press, 2014.
Academic pieces that dig into recent portraits in popular media, comic and dramatic, of intimacies between straight(ish) men. Includes the essay
"'I Love You, Hombre': Y tu mamá también as Border-Crossing Bromance" by Nick Davis, as well as chapters on Superbad, Humpday, Jackass, The Wire, and other texts. Written for a mixed audience of scholars, students, and non-campus readers. Forthcoming in June 2014. "Remarkably sophisticated essays." Janet Staiger, "Essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary models of gender and sexuality." Harry Benshoff

Fifty Key American Films ($31/pbk). Ed. Sabine Haenni, John White. Routledge, 2009. Includes my essays on
The Wild Party,
The Incredibles, and
Brokeback Mountain. Intended as both a newcomer's guide to the terrain
and a series of short, exploratory essays about such influential works as The Birth of a Nation, His Girl Friday, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song,
Taxi Driver, Blade Runner, Daughters of the Dust, and Se7en.

The Cinema of Todd Haynes: All That Heaven
Allows ($25/pbk). Ed. James Morrison. Wallflower Press, via Columbia University Press, 2007. Includes the essay
"'The Invention of a People': Velvet Goldmine and the Unburying of Queer Desire" by Nick Davis, later expanded and revised in The Desiring-Image.
More, too, on Poison, Safe, Far From Heaven, and Haynes's other films by Alexandra Juhasz, Marcia Landy,
Todd McGowan, James Morrison, Anat Pick, and other scholars. "A collection as intellectually and emotionally
generous as Haynes' films" Patricia White, Swarthmore College

Film Studies:
The Basics ($23/pbk). By Amy Villarejo. Routledge, 2006, 2013. Award-winning
film scholar and teacher Amy Villarejo finally gives us the quick, smart, reader-friendly guide to film vocabulary that every
teacher, student, and movie enthusiast has been waiting for, as well as a one-stop primer in the past, present, and future of film production, exhibition,
circulation, and theory. Great glossary, wide-ranging examples, and utterly unpretentious prose that remains rigorous in its analysis;
the book commits itself at every turn to the artistry, politics, and accessibility of cinema.

Most recent screenings in each race;
multiple nominees appear wherever they scored their most prestigious nod...
and yes, that means Actress trumps Actor!

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